United Nations
June 23, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Earlier this week, I discussed the Trump administration’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the farcical U.N. Human Rights Council. Our stated reasons for pulling were that the Council, which includes notorious human rights abusers (e.g., China, Cuba, and Venezuela), tolerates atrocities and exhibits blatant bias against Israel. Now, it has been alleged that the U.S. withdrew at least in part because a representative of the Council wrote a
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June 19, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Today, the Trump administration pulled the U.S. out of the cesspool known as the United Nations Human Rights Council. It did so in protest of the presence of notorious human rights abusers on the commission, as well as the commission’s blatant bias against Israel. Nikki Haley, our splendid U.N. ambassador, issued a blistering critique of the Council, explaining that it has become a “protector of human rights abusers and a
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May 29, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Over the years, critics of the United Nations have been able to attack and ridicule that organization over the membership and leadership of various human rights organizations it sponsors. The best example is probably Iran’s membership on U.N. committees that oversee the protection of women’s rights and global human rights. Now, we have an even more egregious case. Syria has taken up the presidency of the United Nations-backed Conference on
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May 18, 2018 — Scott Johnson
The worse than worthless United National Human Rights Council delivered its ritual condemnation of Israel today in a special session on Gaza. Before the vote was taken, Gatestone Institute Distinguished Senior Fellow Colonel Richard Kemp spoke on behalf United Nations Watch. In light of the recent NBC News hit piece on Gatestone, I should add that Colonel Kemp’s statement is more informative than everything NBC News has on offer today.
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March 11, 2018 — Scott Johnson
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley addressed the multitude assembled at the AIPAC policy conference in Washington this past Monday (video below, text here). I am reliably informed by my friends who were there that, with the possible exception of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech, Ambassador Haley’s remarks constituted the highlight of the event. They also emphasized to me that you had to have been there to understand why.
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December 22, 2017 — Scott Johnson
The Weekly Standard publishes Ambassador’s Haley’s remarks in the General Assembly yesterday in the editorials of its new issue here. The text is posted by our mission to the United Nations here. The Standard’s editorial introduction notes that the resolution before the U.N. chastised the United States for its decision on December 6 to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and demanded the rescission of that policy. After Haley’s
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December 21, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Nikki Haley has defended President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital with vigor and enthusiasm in the United Nations. In doing so she has at all points sought to distinguish our course under President Trump from the blasted days of Barack Obama when the United States prostrated itself before the murderous regimes that throw their weight around in that desiccated body. Earlier this week she let it be
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December 20, 2017 — Steven Hayward
It is pretty presumptuous to declare the tweet of the week, let alone Tweet of the Year, but our UN Ambassador Nikki Haley is making a strong bid with this tweet today: Take names and kick ass, I say. Haley is making a strong bid to be ranked alongside Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Jeane Kirkpatrick as the best UN ambassadors of the postwar era. Which means one big thing: Nikki
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October 14, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
I don’t think we have commented on President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in protest of that outfit’s anti-Israel bias. My comment is: Great call. President Trump is following in the footsteps of President Reagan. He took the U.S. out of UNESCO in 1984 because it was too susceptible to Soviet influence and overly critical of Israel. There
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October 10, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Melanie Phillips recently drew attention to the September 25 appearance of a former prince of Hamas with a surprising message at the 36th Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The sole purpose of this worse than worthless organization seems to be the disparagement of Israel. Melanie posted the video along with an introduction. Here is the video. Up for discussion was the evergreen subject of human rights
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September 20, 2017 — Steven Hayward
I’ll probably never be able to make up my mind fully about President Trump, and I am sure a number of our commenters will pounce on this opening. But just about every time I think he’s blundered or shown himself not up to the job, something changes my mind as the dust settles. First, as Scott and Paul noted, his speech to the UN this week was terrific. Geez—you’d think
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September 19, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said of President Trump’s speech at the U.N today, “In over 30 years in my experience with the UN, I never heard a bolder or more courageous speech.” Netanyahu’s speech to the U.N. wasn’t bad either. You can read it here. Netanyahu began by celebrating Israel’s vastly improved standing in the world: We’re in the midst of a great revolution, a revolution in Israel’s standing among
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September 19, 2017 — Scott Johnson
President Trump’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly this morning was an eloquent piece of work. It warrants review in its entirety. The White House has posted the full text here. Video is embedded below (about 42 minutes). It was in many respects a speech that returned to the traditional themes of American foreign policy running back to the Truman administration, the Marshall Plan and the founding of the
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September 19, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
President Trump addressed the United Nations today. You can read his speech here. I think it’s an excellent address. I agree with Rick Manning that “Trump has provided a cogent and inspiring defense of America and the American constitutional system of governance to the world, not as imposition but an example to be followed, while at the same time respecting the sovereignty of other nations.” While making clear that the
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June 8, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
President Trump has made some outstanding appointments (although one of the best, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, recently offered to resign in the face of criticism from the president). Right now, my favorite Trump appointee is U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley. In the tradition of our best U.N. ambassadors — Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Jeane Kirkpatrick — Haley has been a powerful voice against U.N. hypocrisy. Most notably, she has denounced U.N.
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June 1, 2017 — Steven Hayward
Word is that President Trump will announce his decision on whether the U.S. will remain in the Paris Climate Accord at 3 pm eastern time today. It is rumored that he will withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Accord, probably by invoking its own clause allowing for withdrawal on a four-year timeline, but that the U.S. will remain a full participant in the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, which
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April 26, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Dana Milbank reports, with glee, that the United Nations “has contacted the Trump administration as part of an investigation into whether repealing [Obamacare] without an adequate substitute for the millions who would lose health coverage would be a violation of several international conventions that bind the United States.” The warning comes from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights in Geneva. The U.N. Human Rights Commission (now
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